First Google Immerse VR Episode Is About Racial Identity

First Google Immerse VR episode titled "Racial Identity: Dezzie's Story" was released by the Mountain View-based tech giant on Thursday. As its name suggests, the five-minute episode explores racial identity, diversity, and acceptance by focusing on real people and their everyday interactions with the world. The episode follows Dezzie Dimbitsara, one of Google's UX Designers who talks about her first-hand experiences with racism, racial profiling, identity, and reveals how these phenomena are affecting her and her family on a daily basis. While the title of the episode doesn't suggest that the latest creation of Google's Immersion Team is about racism, the authors of the video claim that one cannot explore racial identity while ignoring racism.

The video takes place in Paris and allows viewers to have a 360-degree look at Dimbitsara and her everyday life, as well as her childhood home and the professional career she's currently enjoying. This Google Immerse VR episode is likely a sign that more similar videos and experiences will be released by the company in the future. It remains to be seen whether the VR content team of the Alphabet-owned firm will continue exploring racial identity in their future work, but their latest video certainly suggests that they intend to focus their creative energy on societal issues like racism. You can watch the full episode below.

Apart from bringing attention to the issue of racism, the first Google Immerse VR episode also represents another step in the company's endeavor to produce more meaningful content designed for VR headsets. While Racial Identity: Dezzie's Story can be watched without a VR headset like the Daydream View, it cannot be fully experienced in any other way. On the other side of the virtual reality spectrum, Google's content team has also recently been hard at work creating VR experiences that were primarily designed to be entertaining, all with the goal of further promoting this emerging technology. The company's VR endeavors were recently even awarded with an Oscar nomination for a Google Spotlight Story Pearl which became the first VR experience to be nominated for an Academy Award in the history of the filmmaking industry.

Dominik started at AndroidHeadlines in 2016 and is the Head Editor of the site today. He’s approaching his first full decade in the media industry, with his background being primarily in technology, gaming, and entertainment. These days, his focus is more on the political side of the tech game, as well as data privacy issues, with him looking at both of those through the prism of Android. Contact him at [email protected]